1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a data generation method, and a data structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional image forming apparatuses are sometimes equipped with a clear toner as a colorless toner that does not contain a color material, in addition to four CMYK color toners. A toner image formed with such a clear toner is fixed to a recording medium, such as a transfer sheet, on which an image is already formed with the CMYK toners, so that a visual effect or a tactile effect (a surface effect) can be realized on the surface of the recording medium. What surface effect is to be realized depends on what toner image is formed with the clear toner and how the toner image is fixed to the recording medium. There are surface effects that simply apply gloss, while there are surface effects that suppress gloss. In addition, there is a need to apply a surface effect not only to the whole surface but also to only a part of the surface or to apply a surface effect in order to add a texture or a watermark by using the clear toner. There is also a need to give surface protection. Some surface effects are realized by performing post processing by a special post processing device, such as a glosser or a low-temperature fixing device, besides fixing control. In recent years, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3473588, a technology has been developed in which a clear toner is attached to only a desired portion in a part of the surface so that gloss can be applied to only the desired portion.
Furthermore, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-034040, glossiness is influenced by the degree of surface roughness of an image formed on a recording medium. That is, the glossiness is influenced by concavity and convexity that are formed on the surface with the CMYK toners. Therefore, the glossiness is not increased simply in proportion to the concentration of the clear toner.
More specifically, it is needed to control smoothness of the surface of an image in order to apply gloss. To address this matter, it is needed to generate clear-toner image data, which is image data used for forming a toner image with a clear toner, based on a CMYK concentration value of each pixel to which the clear toner is to be attached, presence or absence of a post processing device connected to an image forming apparatus, and a type of the post processing apparatus. Therefore, it is needed to precisely adjust the contents of the clear-toner image data, the number of the pieces of the clear-toner image data, control of the printer, and control of the post processing device. However, it has been difficult for a user to generate image data and make print settings for the control by taking all of the above matters into consideration.
Furthermore, according to the conventional technology, while it is possible to apply one type of a surface effect, such as specular gloss, to the whole surface of one page of a recording medium, it is difficult to apply a plurality of types of gloss to one page of a recording medium.